A multiplicity of parameters which control the sequence of the examination and also its evaluation are required for nuclear medicine examinations such as PET (positron emission tomography). The acquisition time, in particular, that is to say the time throughout which nuclear medicine data are acquired, needs to be mentioned in this context. The acquisition time, that is to say the length of time of data acquisition, depends strongly on the respective patient or the corresponding examination volume, since the attenuation of the radioactive radiation within the detector region is taken into account. By way of example, in the abdominal region in a longer acquisition time must be planned for heavy patients than for thin patients. Analogously, a shorter acquisition time is possible in the region of the extremities than in the abdomen. Since it is protected by the skull bone, longer acquisition times are also required in the head region.
Until now, in the case of nuclear medicine examinations it has been common to let the user input the acquisition time on the basis of his experience. Here, the acquisition time can be input as a fixed period of time or as a number of events to be detected. However, such a procedure is prone to the error inherent in the user input. More experienced users will achieve a better setting and thus a better data quality on account of their larger wealth of knowledge, but even in their case input errors can happen.
In recent times, so-called hybrid modalities have been proposed in medical imaging. In the case of such a combination, a modality with a high spatial resolution (magnetic resonance tomography or computed tomography) is usually combined with a modality with a high sensitivity (nuclear medicine modality, such as SPECT (single photon emission computed tomography) or PET). A particularly promising variant of such a combined scanner is the combination of magnetic resonance tomography with PET (positron emission tomography) since, for example, many functional examinations require a combination of the image data of these modalities.